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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Rheumatology’s Virtual “Water Cooler”

Debra Gordon, MS  |  Issue: May 2011  |  

“As rheumatologists, we need to do everything we can to stick together,” Dr. Morris stresses. “The sooner a problem is identified, the faster we can get to work on a solution. If I have some problem, chances are someone else has had it or will have it as well, so we can work together to resolve the problem.”

Pediatric rheumatologist Harry L. Gewanter, MD, who practices in Richmond, Va., compares the networking and camaraderie he experiences on the list serve to that he gets from attending the ACR’s annual meeting every year. As a solo practitioner, he relishes the opportunity to walk down a virtual hall and converse with colleagues about a thorny clinical issue or problem with an insurance company. He calls the other members of the list serve his “virtual partners.”

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continued below…

List Serve Rules

  • Do not use any patient-identifiable information on the lists.
  • Do not discuss monetary amounts of reimbursement for procedures or medications.
  • Do not post commercial messages on the lists.
  • Please be careful when discussing commercial products. E-mails posted to the lists are available to numerous individuals and are subject to libel and antitrust laws.
  • Do not post any abusive, threatening, offensive, defamatory, profane, or illegal materials on the list.
  • Do not post any copyrighted materials without the permission of the copyright owner. It will be assumed by the ACR that with any copyrighted material posted on the list that the posting party warrants and represents that he/she owns the copyright or has received permission from the copyright owner. Additionally, by posting such information on the lists, the posting party grants the ACR and other list members the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
  • Avoid any activity that could be construed as a violation of the antitrust laws. The ACR’s policy is to scrupulously comply with all antitrust laws and to prohibit any activity that facilitates price fixing, boycotts, or any other conduct intended to restrict free trade. Do not post any material that:
    • References specific fees charged or paid for professional services;
    • Discusses prices, discounts, terms, or conditions of sale with regard to medical services, suppliers, or other vendors, or terms and conditions of provider agreements relating to reimbursement levels, bonus payments, and other price or cost-related items;
    • Addresses salaries or terms of employment;
    • Attempts to allocate patient markets or encourage collective or coercive activity, including rejection or termination, with regard to third-party payors, hospitals, other healthcare providers, or suppliers; or
    • Includes information that could otherwise be construed to impose a restraint on trade and inhibit free and fair competition.
  • Do not post jokes, humorous stories, or “pass-around” e-mails.
  • Do not post anything to the lists that you would not want everyone to see.
  • Send messages only to the most appropriate list. Do not send the same message to several different lists unless it is relevant to the list.
  • Do not post irrelevant or off-topic information to the list.
  • Do not share content of the interchanges on the list serve nor the names and/or e-mail addresses of the participants with third parties (including employers).

The topics on the list serve are nothing if not diverse. In the past few months, postings ranged from a warning about a leflunomide shortage, before-and-after pictures of the disaster in Japan, difficulties finding generic Depo-Medrol injections, the disappearance of nonacetylated salicylates, and a lively discussion about electronic medical records. Several members shared their efforts to get Medicare coverage for intravenous ibandronate, and, in January, the colchicine issue reemerged with several physicians reporting that pharmacies refused to fill prescriptions written with the generic colchicine rather than the branded name.

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